Got ya! Hmmmm, I'm not sure if there is any evidence for garnering false votes though he certainly engineered the vote of no confidence.
But even that was valid, really he only engineered the events that caused Amidala to present herself to the Senate. Valorum was week no matter what, Palpatine just exploited that weakness.
I think that if you took it at value, without knowing what was to come the only thing Palpatine did that was wrong was to cause the blockade and conspire with the Neimodians.
All the events that followed that would have happened just the as they did if a "natural" blockade had happened.
So, ignoring the Sidious angle and looking ourely at the Palpatine actions, they were clear and correct.